


Empty Opportunity

by HalfshellVenus



Category: Burn Notice
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-11
Updated: 2011-02-11
Packaged: 2017-10-15 13:59:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/161514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfshellVenus/pseuds/HalfshellVenus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Season One): This didn't feel like freedom…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

> For usanetwork_las and the prompt of "You are free, and that is why you are lost." Also for writers_choice, this is "Free."

The space over the nightclub wasn't really a loft, according to Sam, but it helped Michael to think of it that way. It made living there seem less desperate, as if it were part of a long-term plan instead of simply a means to stay the hell out of his mother's house.

Either way, it was temporary. All Michael needed was a safe place to crash while he unraveled the mess behind his burn notice and got himself back into the game.

Fi didn't understand that it was temporary, or she just didn't _want_ to. Michael could see himself still explaining it to her a year from now, except that he had no intention of being around that long. He'd quickly learned not to talk about that too much, though—neither Fi nor Sam were happy with the idea of him leaving, and his mother just kept reminding him of all those years he didn't call or write and she thought that he was _dead_.

Michael walked around the large room that now passed for his home. It was an industrial space—peeling paint, dirty windows, metal bunker door. It was also all he could afford. With his bank accounts frozen and no leverage against anyone, he was strapped for funds and there were no easy answers ahead.

 _"But you're free now, Michael,"_ Fi kept saying. _"You don't have to play by their rules. You can do anything you want."_

Michael kicked a hunk of metal out of his way and watched a cloud of dust rise up in its path. He sighed, and pulled a large piece of aluminum siding away from a window. It was going to take a lot of work just to get back on his feet again, and he'd still be nowhere and have nothing to show for it when it was done.

Fi's words kept coming back to haunt him, promising a salvation that anyone else would have embraced.

This didn't feel like freedom. With all that was available to him, the only thing Michael wanted was the life he'd had before.

If he couldn't lift that burn notice, that old life would stay hopelessly out of reach.

 

 _\--------- fin --------_


End file.
